There's no way to tell if you've already read them like in the first one?

Seems... lazy on the dev part? Am I expected to manually write down every book I read so I know i've read it?

You don't even get a notification if you learned something from the book?

..Confused. Does not seem finished to me.

Correct. And, sometimes your journal will get populated with new info when you simply acquire the book, and other times you have to read it to get the journal entry, and there's no way to tell the difference.

You usually do get a notification in the lower-right if you read a book that hasn't already added a journal entry from just picking it up (unless the book doesn't generate a journal entry at all).

But yeah, way worse than the first one. Recipes, too.

This is really not a spoiler, since it is described somewhere in the tutorial... reading books no longer means squat. Unlike W1, you can get all the "knowledge" you need by merely fighting enemies. So, say you are doing the Chptr 2 nekker quest. When you first get it, the first leg of the quest is "learn more about nekkers". Well, you could find a book or 2 about nekkers (even though the books don't really say what you need to know, you are just magically advanced to the next leg), or, you can kill 12 nekkers and again you magically learn what you need to do.

When you read books now, you have to actually read them. In W1, you just right click them, and then look at the necessary info in your journal. You COULD read them, but it wasn't necessary. Different, but not better or worse.

There's more reasons for reading books than gaining crucial info for game progress...... you know, like, interest in the lore. :p

its worse lol. cos they no longer have an indicator whether you have read the book, bought the book or acquired the recipe/diagram unlike in the first game. its painfully tedious alway having to manual search and go thru your recipes and books to see what ur missing...

I guess you are right, but if you played W1, I don't believe there's anything new you'd learn from reading books.

yeah its a bit tedious that there's no indicator to tell if you've already read the book or not but its not true that you dont get any tactical info out of it.
its just that instead storing it in journal entry for the monsters its stored in the Knowledge database which can be accessed through the Attributes screen.(thats a bit tediuos too).

i think this is one of the biggest errors in the game.

Books are beyond useless..they dont do anything and dont help in anyway < It needs to be corrected in any future Witcher releases and if possible in the current release.

If u learn everything there is 2 know on a creature u should be gaining some advantages right ???.. come CDP allow us to gain something from all the knowledge we are getting.

well, of course you're the tactical know how on how to take down various monsters.
for example, take the fact that fire is the best bet against wraiths or aard brings the harpies down and they are not able fly for some time.
what more you expect out of books!!

id expect the same advantages that all books have in RPG's ? except Witcher 2.




Ive gained no real additional knowledge thus far from reading a book in game because you learn it through experience anyways or just by roaming the world. So they really need to change the way a book operates in the game and in future releases.. make it worthwhile whats the point in buying them otherwise ?

In previous RPG's a book was a great item it had alot of bonuses it couldve been :

1.Additional XP
2.Additional Speciality
3.Pointed Towards A Powerful Object/Treasure
4.Severely Helped On A Quest
5.Gained Additional Bonus Towards The Enemy You Learned About

and list goes on.

Witcher 2 ingame books give u nothing that ive found thus far except a whole in my virtual pocket.

yeah, the gargoyle entry was a bummer alright but i dont agree with you regarding the bosses.

i mean bosses like draug in TW2 and koschey in TW1 are so rare and so powerful that it makes sense that the books dont have much tactical info on them ( i remember koschey entry in TW1 was smthg like " its death , run ..blah blah blah ..." ) , you know kind of adds realism to the game world.
on the other hand i found some entries to be lifesaver atleast in early parts of the game like the one on those nekker bastards and how bleeding is their weakness.

and i think its sort of ridiculus to expect that your damage stats against a creature rises just cause you've read a book about them.

so your saying all rpgs are "ridiculous"..

if i know everything there is to know to kill a wild pig in real life doesnt that mean it be easier for me to kill that pig ?..yes.

so why not have this knowledge give advantages like it would in real life ??.